Articles written by Lee Hughes


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  • Doing it for the love of the kids

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 13, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE - The two men are diametric opposites. The first is a one-armed, self-described liberal non-conformist hippy running coach, the other a retired Air Force chief master sergeant, traditionalist conservative business owner and national hall of fame wrestling coach. In this age of extreme social and political polarity, it would seem unlikely that Medical Lake High School head cross-country and track coach Gene Blankenship and Mat Maulers Wrestling Club coach Wayne...

  • Lady Cards lose in tiebreaker

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 13, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Lady Cards went 1 for 4 in their final games of the regular season with a win against Newport before absorbing three losses, including a No. 1 seed tiebreaker against Deer Park. The season end started out strong, despite missing Lexie Redell who has been sidelined since Jan. 31 with a head injury, with the Cards taking out Newport at home in a 59-31 smack-down on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Medical Lake dominated the Grizzlies throughout the most of the game, starting...

  • Card boys win one, lose two

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 13, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal boys had a rough past week as they head into the end of the 2019-2020 season, winning a home game against Newport, then dropping the next two games to Freeman and Deer Park. The Cardinals offense came in strong from the tip-off at the Tuesday, Feb. 4 home game determined to beat Newport who had derailed their mid-season, eight-game winning streak with a Jan. 14 65-52 win. And they did, dominating the Grizzlies offensively, heading into the half w...

  • Cardinal wrestling team takes third at districts

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 13, 2020

    SPANGLE — The Medical Lake wrestling team missed the title in the Northeast A League at the district meet last weekend, settling instead for third after first-place Lakeside and second-place Deer Park. The Cards scored 208.5, 10.5 points behind Deer Park’s 219 and 42.5 points shy of Lakeside’s 251. But 12 individual Medical Lake wrestlers will be moving on to regionals. Angel Mendez had to settle for third place in the 106-pound weight class after being pinned by Freem...

  • Medical Lake council discusses renewing community cleanup

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 13, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The City Council considered the pros and cons of another community cleanup day, approved amendments to a professional services agreement and the city’s six-year transportation improvement plan at a short, 22 minute meeting Tuesday, Feb. 4. The agenda item producing the most discussion was another proposed city cleanup day, possibly as soon as April. “It was a big hit,” Mayor Shirley Maike said of the last event. “They’re already asking about it.” The council’s d...

  • Cards lose to Stags, maintain league lead

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal boys let Deer Park take an early lead that they were never able to catch in a disappointing 52-39 loss on Friday at home. “A very tough team,” head coach Jordan Starr said as stunned fans began exiting the gymnasium. “But we knew going in it was going to be tough.” The Stags played a fast, aggressive game throughout, while putting up a strong defense in front of their basket, holding the Cardinals to a single Jordan Petersen free throw at the 3-minu...

  • Card wrestlers fall to tie-breaker

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    DEER PARK — The Cardinal wrestling team ended the season with a loss at the hands of the Stags at Thursday, Jan. 30 dual in a close 41-30 loss. “We fell a little short,” head coach Matt Leenhouts said. Medical Lake’s Victor long took out Max Leonard in the 152-pound weight class on a 5:46 pin, and Cardinal standout Ethan Davis made quick work of Deer Park’s Ivan Bogle with a 45 second pin, while Card Brandon Giles, wrestling at 145, beat Logan Erickson on a 5-4 decision....

  • Cheney wrestlers: playoffs in sight

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    CHENEY — Blackhawk wrestlers spent the weekend at area tournaments ahead of post-season Great Northern League action that kicks off Friday. As a team the Blackhawks took 11th at the North Idaho Rumble at Coeur d’Alene High School Friday and Saturday, where Dylan Straley, with a 32-3 record, took third in the 145-pound weight class in a 11-6 decision over Potlatch’s Gabe Prather. At 152, Cheney’s Jackson Showalter snagged a first-place finish over Ethan Miller of Post Falls w...

  • Determination trumps injury and pain

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The spotlight shining down on the mat reflects upward on the young man’s face that is nearly emotionless, yet somehow predatory. “That’s what you have to do,” 16-year-old Cardinal wrestler Ethan Davis said. “That puts a fire under your butt. It sets you off.” Today, the 170-pound champion wrestler doesn’t study his competition, but feels it better to simply “impose my will on my opponents,” whom he sees, at least while he’s on the mat, not so much as someone to...

  • Lady Cards take out Deer Park

    Lee Hughes|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Lady Cards notched an exciting win on a last second clutch 3-pointer by Emily Munson to beat Deer Park (7-3, 13-5) before a home crowd Friday night 47-44 that extended their winning streak to four games. It was a back-and-forth game that went right down to the buzzer. Medical Lake took the first quarter by two points, then allowed the Stags to take over the court in the second by an eight-point margin for a 21-15 Deer Park lead at the half. Then the Cards st...

  • Medical Lake School Board passes policies

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Medical Lake School District Board had a full agenda at its Tuesday, Jan. 28, meeting, considering a number of policy changes, approving grants and accepting an anonymous donation, curriculum changes and the cost of the state’s new district employee benefit program. The board passed five new board policies on first and second reading, all generally related to violence and harassment and how the district is to deal with it. Board policy 3207 prohibiting har...

  • Brad Richmond named new Airway Heights police chief

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Feb 6, 2020

    AIRWAY HEIGHTS — There’s a new police chief in town and he’s looking for help from the community he is sworn to protect. “Law enforcement can’t do it on their own,” Brad Richmond, the city’s new police chief, said. “We have to collaborate and work with our community, and all our other partners to effect quality of life in a positive way for all of our citizens.” It only took 27 years, but Richmond, 53, has come full-circle. He started his law enforcement career in Airway...

  • Kobe Bryant, daughter, die in helicopter crash

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    CALABASAS, CALIF. - As has been widely reported, former National Basketball Association legend Kobe Bryant, along with eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died Sunday morning in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles. Members of the Medical Lake High School girl's basketball team were able to meet the basketball icon when they traveled to Cashmere on Jan. 11 for non-league games against the Bulldogs. Bryant attended the games to watch Bulldog senior phenom a...

  • Cardinal wrestlers notch another league win heading into districts

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal wrestling team earned another Northeast A League win against Lakeside, then went through the grinder in two regional tournaments in the past week as they head into their final dual tomorrow. Saying the team’s 46-34 win over Lakeside at their Thursday, Jan. 23 dual “was huge for us,” head coach Matt Leenhouts and his crew of grapplers have their sights set on Deer Park and the NEA title tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 31, as they continue their march to the...

  • Card girls go three wins in a row in NEA league play

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinal girls basketball crew extended their winning streak to three with league wins over Northeast A League Lakeside, Colville and Riverside last week. The Lady Cards played the game head coach Kyle Lundberg has been preaching all year — a four quarter game — when they came away with a solid 49-37 road win against last-place Lakeside (0-8, 1-15) on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Medical Lake took an early 11-5 lead going into the second quarter, but allowed the Eagle...

  • Cardinal boys swat aside Colville, Riverside

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — The Cardinals enjoyed a solid past week in all-league play, beating Lakeside, destroying Colville, then going on to a decisive victory against Riverside the for a five-game winning streak and only one loss in their last 14 games as they set their sights on a competitive playoff bid. On the road at Lakeside (2-6,5-11) on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the Cards made a slow start before gaining steam to go on and notch a 60-53 win despite an Eagles 27-16 lead at the half. But...

  • Cheney wrestlers tops in GNL

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    CHENEY — The Blackhawks finished the regular Great Northern League season with a blowout of Pullman to secure the Great Northern League wrestling title for the second year in a row, before heading to the Rumble in the Valley during the past week. The consecutive titles are the first in 30 years, according to second-year head coach Jason Connor. “It’s good to go back-to-back and get a couple of them,” he said. Blackhawk wrestlers wrapped up their regular season with the 50-...

  • County Fire District 3 renovating for the future

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    CHENEY/MEDICAL LAKE — Spokane County Fire District 3 and the community it serves is growing, and the department is busy making room for its expanding staff in Medical Lake and at its headquarters at Station 31 in Cheney. Construction plans are ready to go to bid “in a couple of weeks,” for the approximately $200,000 project to renovate Station 311, formerly known as the Medical Lake Fire Station, according to Don Crawford, District 3 assistant fire chief. Scheduled to start...

  • Medical Lake accepts road improvement grants

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE —A full City Council, including newly elected councilman Art Kulibert attending his first meeting, took 15 minutes to work through a short agenda at its regular Tuesday, Jan. 21 session. The council started by unanimously electing Councilwoman Jessica Roberts as mayor pro-tem for 2020. Roberts will fill-in for Mayor Shirley Maike in the event of an absence. The council also unanimously voted to accept two Transportation Improvement Board grants totaling $413,402....

  • Sleeping burglar awakened by deputies

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    SPOKANE COUNTY — Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a burglar caught sleeping in a spare bedroom, then linked the suspect to two other nearby burglaries, according to a press release. On Sunday, Jan. 19, Deputy Ryan Truman responded to a 12:15 p.m. report of a stranger asleep in the caller’s rural residence on the 7200 block of W. Griffin Road. Arriving, Truman found a set of footprints in the snow on the driveway leading to the home and immediately recognized the s...

  • Lawsuit against Spokane Gun Club fails

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 30, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — A lawsuit filed in Spokane Superior Court contesting Spokane County’s removal of a no-shooting designation ahead of development of the Spokane Gun Club’s proposed shooting range north of Medical Lake and west of Fairchild Air Force Base has failed. The Whitehead’s, an extended family with property near the proposed range, collectively filed the lawsuit alleging Spokane County incorrectly interpreted and applied a county code that allowed a no-shooting designa...

  • St. Johns Lutheran welcomes new pastors

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 23, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — St. Johns Lutheran Church has a new pastor. Two, actually. Greg and Carol Yeager arrived in mid-December and began tending to their flock that includes Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Reardan on Jan. 1. The Yeager’s came from North Carolina via North Dakota where they spent “three winters,” as Greg put it, before moving south where they pastored for 15 years at various churches in the Carolina heat as independent Lutheran pastors. And Greg, at least, was just fine w...

  • Footprints in snow lead to Medical Lake prowler arrest

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 23, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — A Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy arrested an alleged vehicle prowler after backtracking the man’s footprints in the snow early Monday morning, Jan. 13. Deputy Garrett Spencer was on patrol when he stopped a man walking in the road just after 4 a.m. near South Broad and East Grace streets in a heavy snowstorm. The man, Joseph Blaine Thornton, was wearing clothing “not appropriate for the snow and 24-degree weather,” according to the police report. When ques...

  • Medical Lake JROTC is competitive

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 23, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE - The Medical Lake High School Washington 81st Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps continues to do well in the Cascade Mountain League. The high school recently became a dormitory of sorts during the weekend of Dec. 14 when 420 students from 16 teams in the league that spans across Washington and as far south as Bend, Ore., encamped in classrooms to compete in a variety of events, from precision drill to physical fitness. Medical Lake finished first in the...

  • Long-time Medical Lake city attorney retiring

    Lee Hughes, Staff reporter|Updated Jan 23, 2020

    MEDICAL LAKE — After 37 years as the city’s legal representative, city attorney Cynthia McMullen is hanging it up — finally. Hired by Mayor Don Johns as city attorney and prosecutor in 1983, McMullen has since helped the city maneuver the legalities of municipal governance on a variety of issues that ushered in slow changes in the small, bucolic community. McMullen began her career out of Gonzaga Law School as a clerk, intern and eventually an attorney for the city of Spoka...

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